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By RAY KELLY
Until recently, the producers of The Other Side of the Wind have spoken only with the New York Times and Wellesnet about bringing Orson Welles’ final film to the screen next year.
That changed today with the publication of a piece in the leading French news weekly L’Express.
Producers Jens Koethner Kaul and Filip Jan Rymsza, as well as Welles’ authors Joseph McBride and Josh Karp, discussed the history of The Other Side of the Wind and the efforts to complete it next year.
Much of what was discussed in the Nov. 5 edition of L’Express has already appeared in the U.S., but there was some exciting additional information, which it turns out was not accurate.
L’Express attached the names of an Academy Award winning editor and a respected French composer to the film, and revealed that “a famous family of American patrons, wishing to remain anonymous” donated $4 million to the project.
Exciting news, but it’s not all true.
Multiple sources close to the production told Wellesnet on Wednesday night that they were surprised by the L’Express article. The search for an editor and composer has only just begun and there was no anonymous $4 million gift.
Instead, producers are seeking a distributor this week at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, Calif. That may not sound sexy, but it’s at least true.
The Other Side of the Wind takes place at the 70th birthday party of maverick movie director Jake Hannaford (John Huston), who is struggling to make a commercial comeback at a time when the studio system has been replaced by the New Hollywood. The party is attended by young directors, like Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich), hangers-on, critics and movies freaks – many of whom are not so subtly patterned after people in Welles’ life. Hannaford dies at the conclusion of the party and his final hours are recounted in a collage of still photos, and 8mm, 16mm and 35mm color and black-and-white film shot at the party, along with scenes from his unfinished comeback movie.
Welles struggled to finish The Other Side of the Wind before his death in May 1985, but was stymied by problems ranging from financing to the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Repeated announcements that the film’s completion was at hand have tantalized and frustrated Welles’ fans for nearly 30 years.
Rymsza and Kaul have teamed with Frank Marshall (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future) to complete the film. Rymsza and Kaul secured the partial ownership rights held by the Paris film company Les Films de l’Astrophore and the late Mehdi Boushehri, brother-in-law of the Shah of Iran. Agreements were also reached with with Welles’ youngest daughter, Beatrice, who heads the Estate of Orson Welles, and the late director’s longtime companion Oja Kodar, who inherited his ownership rights.
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